FDM Group Interview Questions & Answers

I was one of the first candidates to experience the new interview process.

I originally applied in January, but my application was deferred until May because I don't finish my course until September. However, they have start dates throughout the year and they suit it to what is best for you.

I applied through graduate-jobs.com and then a recuiter rung me shortly after. I had my telephone interview in May, which was more of an informal chat explaining what I did my degree in and what work experience I had. Then I was invited to video interview.

The video interview is a new process they've introduced and it's quite strange. I had never done a video interview before, so I found it quite daunting, especially because there is no one else at the other end of the video. You have 45 seconds thinking time, then the video will automatically start recording and you have 60 seconds to answer the question. There are only 6 questions and it's all over quite quickly.

I was then invited to the assessment centre in London. There was a tour, brief introductions, then a presentation about FDM. After that we had a Venn Diagram/Set Notation test (1 hour) and an IT aptitude test (1 hour). We had a break for lunch, then came back to do the maths test (1/2 hour) and then had the three 5 min interviews. They ask you 4 questions in each interview, such as "Why do you want to work for FDM?", "Why did you choose your degree?", "What is the best way to learn?" and "What are the most important issues the IT industry is currently facing?"

They will get back to you via email within 48 hours. I found out I was successful the next morning :)

What are your thoughts on organisational change?
Would you sacrifice quality to meet a deadline?

Make sure you prepare, learn statistics about the company and learn about their core values, their clients and their culture.

They're all really friendly, so it's not daunting.

The three 5 minute interviews went so quickly. But make sure you give examples and expand on your answers because they don't prompt you to. So don't just give yes and no answers!

Venn diagram and Set Notation Test for 1 hour - they give you a booklet to help. They basically want to see that you can follow instructions and to see if you looked at the YouTube video links they give you in the Assessment Centre Guide.

IT Aptitude Test for 1 hour - this was not as bad as I was expecting. There were some IT questions that I had to guess, but as it's positively marked, you can't lose marks for answering a question incorrectly, so it wasn't too bad. It's a combination of logical reasoning, IT and business questions. There was a weird one where you had to guess what the word "sleepily" meant in a language they made up. But other than that, they were relatively straight forward.

Maths Test for 1/2 hour - I was most nervous about this because if you fail this test you have to retake the whole assessment centre. However, they give you links to BBC Bitesize to help. You need to know Pythagoras' Theorem, long division, long multiplication, simultaneous equations, square roots, cube roots and basic arithmetic. But it's honestly a lot easier than I expected and it's only GCSE level.

After an initial application, there is a short 15 minute telephone interview clarifying details and assessing interest in the company/ sector/ role. My assessment day was two days later and comprised of two five-minute interviews, a numerical test, a test on set notation, and an aptitude test. The two interviews were standard and friendly, and were focussed mainly on personality and approach.

Would you sacrifice quality to meet a deadline?

Do plenty of prep before hand, the questions aren't hard but it's definitely worth a look over! It is also important to be open, friendly and enthusiastic. The training scheme means you can pick up any technical knowledge you need so their real focus is on hiring those with great inter-personal skills and an ability to learn fast. The technical and business pathways are assessed together but not ranked together meaning there is no need to panic about not knowing all the technology ins and outs.

The numerical test is GCSE maths, the set notation test is given alongside an instruction leaflet and the video provided before the day is very useful. The aptitude test has some basic coding questions, some logic puzzles, and a number of IT questions (inc IP4vIP6, SQL, bits in a byte, etc.). A little Google research was enough to get through this!

I applied in January and my application was deferred to March. First of all, I had my phone interview which was based on my knowledge of FDM and the IT industry, my academic history and some personal competency-based questions. Having done a bit of research on the company, it was fairly easy to pass that stage of the interview. It lasted about 15 minutes.
I was fortunate enough to get an invite to the assessment centre in the Manchester academy on 31st March. There was a group of about 8 people attending, I was the only girl, although in the IT industry a minority of girls is common! The day started off with presentation of the company and the graduate scheme, each candidate had to give a short introduction about themselves, and the route they were interested in applying to, i.e. Technical or Business. I recommend researching your preferred route in advance to the interview! The unpaid training process of 2-3 months was also explained. We then had three separate 5 minute 1:1 interviews based on the same general areas as the phone interview. In preparation, I had a look at YouTube on how to answer interview questions, which might sound a bit daft but it really benefited me as someone who has not experience in professional interviews. I also developed a SWOT analysis of FDM for an insightful overview ot the company.
We then had three tests: 1) IT and Aptitude (1 hour), 2) Maths - Mental arithmetic to GCSE standard (1/2 hour), and 3) Venn Diagrams (1 hour). My advice on these is to put a good amount of revision in using the information they send by email. As someone who doesn't come from a strong IT background, I definitely recommend doing a bit of additional research on the basics, such as common IT abbreviations, e.g. http. The Maths tests was pretty straight forward, know your basic long division and multiplication, fractions, ratios, Pythagoras, etc. I've never come across Venn diagrams until this interview either, and yet again, they're not complex providing you do a bit of a brush-up on them, although they do provide a booklet on them to support you through the test. Whilst these tests do sound daunting, I was advised that only a 50% pass mark is required.
The assessment centre started at 9am and finished early at 2:30pm. We were told that we would hear if we were successful or not by email within 48 hours. I heard back the next morning on 1st April with good news. I'm now awaiting a phone call to arrange a start date.

What do you think of organisational change? What is the best way to learn?

Perhaps I'm stating the obvious, but prepare!!! Know the company, and know what you want from the company. In your responses to the interviews use your experiences and give suitable personal examples!

Introduce yourself in morning presentation.
IT and Aptitude test
Mental Maths test
Venn Diagram test